I want to start learning the tin whistle can anyone recommend the best one to get? A friend gave me clarke sweetone for my b’day ,but i didnt know if this was a good one or not, it seems very hard to play, ex.. getting the air flow right and not squeaking. I am possibly looking at getting another one but i dont know which would be the best one.
The Clarke Sweetone is as good as they get for a beginner’s whistle. Don’t blow too hard, make sure your fingers are closing the holes properly (without squeezing) and practice for five or ten minutes at a time several times a day … use the sheet that came with the whistle as your first reference if you have nothing else. Within a few days you’ll wonder what all the fuss was about, within a few weeks you’ll probably think the Sweetone is as good as a whistle need be … which might not be far from the truth 
Enjoy … and good luck
A serious whistler can certainly do better than a Sweetone (the tuning is pretty poor) but they are one of the easiest to get a sound out of so your problems are definitely due to inexperience. You would do fine to work on your breathing with the whistle you have for now as it will be more forgiving than most other models. The seam down the back of them can be quite an irritant to some people while other seem to manage it well enough. If anything it may help to let you know when you’re gripping the whistle too tightly (you’ll know when you have a deep impression through your thumbs).
Stick with it for a while, it takes some finesse to blow softly through the whistle at first without breaking the notes. Asking this community which whistle to buy will get you a hundred different answers but you can learn on just about anything until you have the discernment yourself to pick a whistle you like.
Welcome!..inexperience is the only problem you have right now and all the above posts are telling you the truth. It won’t be long until you will be making progress on the Clarke Sweetone. It was one of the first whistles I bought tho…not my favorite whistle from the start it is/was easy to play and by luck mine is A440 in pitch. I will just throw this out there for you…A Dixon Trad Brass “D” whistle and it’s a piece of cake to play and sounds great(you can tune it as well…whistle & Drum has them)) Now, it probably will be just as hard to play as your Sweetone is today for you! Maybe not?( if the Sweetone whistle is a bummer for you buy another whistle…don’t give up!) All the Generation whistles will be difficult to play for a Noob even the Jerry freeman Tweaked Gens. To answer your question tho…are there better whistles out there? Oh my God YES! Stick with your Sweetone for awhile you will know when to move on to another whistle…if, money is not a problem you might try other brands. Best of luck to you! Have fun!
http://www.tuxedomusic.com
Welcome, Corrfor!
The more you whistle, the less you will have those irritating squeaks! The Sweetone is a good whistle (I had a Meg until the head cracked). The only flaw mine had was, if you blew too softly in the first octave, it sounded toyish.
I think when I started my buying order went something like this…
I ordered a Gen D & Walton Little Black Whistle D from somewhere.
Then when that seemed not to be working so well, I ordered a tweaked Sweetone D & tweaked Mellow Dog C/D set (I think those came from Doc).
And then, when much to my dismay I still sucked, I dropped beaucoup bucks on an Oz D and I magically became much better.
I found a whistle on ebay it is an older one and the name plate says “signal” has anyone heard of these?, im thinking of getting it cause it is only like ten bucks!
Okay, well the tactful/gentle approach didn’t work, so…
No, really. The Sweetone is all the whistle you are going to need for a long long time. Many of us still play Sweetones (or Megs - which are the same thing) regularly and love them. It also happens to be one of the easiest whistles to learn on (IMO).
The best thing you could do right now - and for a long while - is to NOT buy another whistle. Instead keep practicing the Sweetone whistle you have. 
Or, if you really want to know which one is “best” - well, O’Riordans are right up there at the top, and considered the best by some of the top players. They are also around $1,000, and there is a two year + waiting list. …But look at the bright side, that’s at least 2 years you can spend saving $1,000 and playing the Sweetone.
As for the Signal whistle… can’t tell you much about a whistle I haven’t played, but my advice is to leave the vintage whistles to the collectors. A lot of the time they arrive so banged up that they aren’t much good for playing, only to find out after fixing them that they really weren’t that good to begin with. And as a beginner, you’ll have no idea which is what or how. Save your $10, put it toward your down payment on the O’Riordan, and play the Sweetone.
Beginning to see the trend here? Good. Now go practice your Sweetone. And if you need help with a particular problem as you are figuring it out, there are lots of wonderful people here who love to help - just ask.
Seconded. Well OK, I’m not a big fan of the Sweetone, but for reasons that will not really matter at this stage.
coryfor: Consider this … Whistles are unlike any other instrument in the world*, in that there’s no such thing as a “beginner’s grade” whistle. If you look at what some of the finest whistle players in the world play, you’ll see they’re often playing the exact same <$10 whistles that beginners play: Generations, Feadógs, Waltons, Clarkes. So if you’re itching to spend another $10, get yourself one of those. Or for around $35 a Freeman Tweaked whistle or a Dixon Trad.
[ *Hyperbole alert, I know. I can think of others. ]
Any of those whistles can last you a lifetime. One of my very favorite whistles is my Generation D that I bought around 1976 for <$5. I still play it nearly every day. And I’m not a beginner anymore … 
Or put your extra $$$ toward building your collection of Irish music recordings. That will do far more to improve your whistle playing than a more expensive whistle.
If you’re looking for “antique bargains” check out http://cgi.ebay.com/5-VTG-Whistles-recor-Clarke-Shaw-Generation-Bb-E-D-G-C-/150567400420?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item230e8433e4
two Gen’s, two Clarkes and a Shaw, all for $25 … that’s “like” $5 each … I doubt any of them will be easier to play than your Sweetone, but if you’ve got the money to spend … go for it, it’s a cheap lesson.
Hello coryfor.
I’m a brand new whistler too, so no advice from this quarter,
But, here are some useful links I’ve been given. You may find them useful too;
http://www.rogermillington.com/siamsa/brosteve/index.html
http://www.whistlethis.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/RyanDunsSJ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFcKIcdK_Is
http://www.youtube.com/user/whistletutor
http://www.tinwhistletunes.com/clipssnip/
God bless, and good luck.
MT, I respect you and your wise posts very highly, and I don’t want to start “that” debate again, but I must disagree when you say, “Whistles are unlike any instrument in the world.”
Like everyone, I started with cheapies, including a whistle I still love, the Clarke original. Then I bought a Burke D session. My daughter the flautist said, “All the problems I was going to tell you about in your playing went away when you got your new whistle.”
I know a certain whistle won’t make you a better player, and I know experienced players can make a cheapie whistle sound like solid gold. But I still believe a hand-tuned (or hand tweaked) whistle can give at least a beginner an edge he wouldn’t otherwise have.
This just being my own experience.
Now, I am going to abandon the Chiffboard for eight months to escape flaming!!
the opposing argument has been made many times also.
If you do go the distance
then learning to compensate for the
less than stellar instrument
will make you one of the players
than can make a
You’re fooling yourself… and a comment from a non-player doesn’t really mean all that much (as rude as it sounds to say it, it’s true). The only thing that changed is that you got yourself a very forgiving whistle that practically plays itself. You still have the same bad habits and lack of control you had when you were playing whatever you had before. The idea that you NEED a more expensive whistle to get better is bogus. You said yourself that “Experienced whistlers can make a cheapie whistle sound like solid gold.” Well, where do you suppose this “experience” comes from? It comes from buckling down and learning to make what you have work. You learn to play the whistle the way it needs to be played and in so doing you learn how to intentionally adjust your breathing, cross-fingerings, etc. to suit. A hand-made whistle does not give a beginner an “edge”, it just whitewashes the whole thing and fools you into thinking you’ve made progress when you haven’t.
I guess it’s a question of goals. I’m not saying that buying a hand made whistle is a bad thing–that’s for you to decide–but if you think it’s helping you get better or that you can’t possibly get better at playing a cheap whistle, you’re only fooling yourself. The one area I can see justifying “upgrading” whistles is when it comes to tuning. If a whistle is not in tune with itself (as I’ve experienced with most Sweetones/Megs) then the longer you play them the longer you’re training your ear to hear incorrect pitch, which can have negative effects long term if you don’t stay aware of it or already know better. Even then, the solution doesn’t have to be spending $180 on a Burke. Getting a $10 Feadog or Generation will set you right back up again.
True. The Oz really didn’t really make me a better whistler but it did make me sound a lot better and that, by itself, was a boatload of encouragement.
I’m not sure if this is the case for a majority of beginners but what used to drive me nuts was the constant “squawking” I’d get from the Gen, the Walton, and the Mellow Dog (btw, that’s not a knock on those whistles; it’s a criticism of my ability at the time). The tweaked Sweetone was much better in that regard but the whistle is so pitchy that playing I found myself needing to give my ears a break from it too often. From day one, the Oz didn’t squawk at all for me. So instead of concentrating on not breaking notes, I could start focusing on embellishments. Interestingly, after playing the Oz for a few months, I was able to pick up the other whistles and play them a helluva lot cleaner than before.
I’m not implying that the OP should drop $400 on an Oz or even $100 on a good used whistle but rather that if he finds that the level of difficulty in coaxing pleasant sounds out of the whistle ever puts him off the instrument, there is another direction in which to go aside from walking away. A Gonzato whistle could be another alternative and they’re pretty inexpensive so it’s not simply a matter of price.
If the key to becoming a better whistler is practice, then IMO whatever whistle, despite the price or any other variable, that encourages you to play more is the whistle you should be playing. I think that’s all Riverman and I were saying.
and you do it so many times that it becomes a reflex 
Perhaps short-term it can become a reflex depending on overall skill level and experience. That is why I used the word “intentionally.” It is a lazy musician who figures out how (according to his perception) to play his instrument and then tunes out the senses and no longer pays attention to what he is doing.
For example, everyone is most likely going to be most comfortable on the instrument they’ve played the most but if you give a set of pipes to a good piper he will have figured out after a few moments which fingerings and colourings do and don’t work for that specific chanter and adjust to play it according to its strengths and weaknesses. A focused and intentional musician will eventually get to this level (and I’m certainly not there yet!).
The acquisition of an Oz D helped my playing a lot. I would agree that a good instrument to begin with is a great help for a beginner. $400 is peanuts for a quality instrument, a playable fiddle costs a lot more than that. Try getting a decent flute for less than a grand! I have just ordered my second Oz, in C. Waiting time is about 6 months, maybe more, that’s around 2 bucks a day from now till projected delivery date that I need to save, and I’m a pensioner, not a lot of money really. What is it, the sacrifice of a coffee a day?
Buy good, buy once
I know the “itch” 
I do enjoy the WhOA that I have (Whistle Acquisition Disorder) simply because I enjoy the sound of different whistles. When practicing a tune it’s often nice to hear the same tune using a different whistle. Having said that here is my list:
$ - Feadog or an Oak. For a complete beginner the Clarke Sweetone/Meg.
$$ - Dixon Trad or a Freeman Mellow Dog. (Also the quiet Freeman Blackbird or the very loud Susato, but both of these require some breath control.)
$$$ - Dixon Aluminum DX006 or a Parks Every.
$$$$ - Sindt
$$$$$ - Burke
What I have learned from WhOA is that the cost of a whistle may not necessarily be indicative of how good a whistle is, how good it plays or sounds. It’s important to note that a beginner may have a difficult time with some better quality whistles until a little breath control is achieved.
There are many whistle players that having found good playing inexpensive whistles never find the same playing characteristics they want in the more expensive whistles. In other words, beginners do not need to spend a lot of money to be playing a good whistle. Some of the world’s best players (Mary Bergin, Paddy Maloney, Cathal McConnell) often prefer the inexpensive whistles.
p.s. Kind of a big jump going from a Sweetone to an Oz for a one-whistle beginner 